Today it was sunny and hot. We hiked the Skyline Trail. It’s a very popular trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. It’s so popular that at specific times of the year, you need to make a reservation for a specific time slot if you want to hike it.
The trail itself was fairly boring. There wasn’t much to look at, and it was very sunny and humid.
The trail was pretty much 2 miles of this.
Once we reached the headland, though, we had a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. We even got to see some pilot whales.
Here, you can see the boardwalk leading down to the viewing platform. There is at least one other platform down the headland a bit further. Looking off to the left. That winding road is the Cabot Trail. Looking to the right.See that mossy green groundcover blanketing the mountain in the photo above this one? That is wild blueberry. Yum!
Greg took a tumble on the way back from the hike, so we headed back to the camper to relax for the rest of the day.
Our whale watching trip for today was canceled due to high winds, so we had the entire day free to explore.
We decided to drive up the Cabot Trail along the route that we had chosen not to take with the camper.
But first, we stopped at Les Trois Pignons, which means The Three Gables in French. It was a cute little museum describing the history of the Acadians who settled in Chéticamp.
The museum featured a large exhibit of hooked rugs and placards explaining the history of making hooked rugs. It was surprisingly interesting, considering that I have never found hooked rugs to be particularly attractive.
All of the framed pictures on the walls are actually hooked rugs.The women who made these started by taking the raw sheeps wool, carding it, turning it into yarn, dying it with all the colors that they planned to use (in one instance, 29 shades of brown!), and then hooking the rug based on a design that they had drawn onto canvas.Believe it or not, this is a hooked rug! It is about 6 ft x 10 ft.
With a new appreciation for the ingenuity of the early Acadian settlers, we headed off to check out more of the Cabot Trail.
Cabot Trail to Pleasant Bay
Here are some of the photos from our drive. It was a very hazy, humid day.
This is the only photo that really shows it, but it was so hazy that the Atlantic Ocean blended into the sky at the horizon line.
Bog Trail
One of the park rangers noticed me taking photos of the wildflowers, and she suggested that I check out the Bog Trail if I wanted to see even more wildflowers.
Sadly, the only wildflowers we saw on the trail were pitcher plants, bog cotton, and white-fringed bog orchids. However, we did get to see this shy fellow.
His croaking led us to his location, but he was still difficult to find.Some kind of water lily?A closeup of the water lily
The Whale Interpretive Museum
Once in Pleasant Bay, we toured the Whale Interpretive Museum.
I’m not generally a museum person because I experience information overload, but this museum was small enough to get through in about an hour and very interesting.
Seafood Stop Restaurant
Yes, that’s really the name of the restaurant. The folks who own our campground recommended it, and we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to eat more lobster.
Once again, I dug in before remembering to take a photo.
Greg and I both had the lobster cold plate, which included cold lobster pieces, potato salad, cole slaw, pasta salad, a roll, and melted butter for the lobster. Yum!
We woke up to a beautiful day. Greg had decided that today we would hike the Middle Head Trail, which starts just past the Keltic Lodge off the Cabot Trail.
If I had only known what I was getting myself in for, I may have refused to go. After walking three miles the day before, my body was not prepared to walk four miles today. I can always tell when I’ve pushed my body too hard. I get weepy and start grinding my teeth. By the end of the day, I was there.
The view from the parking lot.I love the way wildflowers grow alongside the trails.Ingonish Island This photo was taken at the headland. I have other photos, but I’m not particularly impressed by them. It’s impossible to provide a true sense of perspective in a photo.
The photo below is of a Zodiac boat doing some whale watching. We actually did get to see some pilot whales as we were hiking the trail.
I was completely wiped and ready to go back to the camper by the time we finished the hike, but Greg had one more place he wanted to go.
He had read about the Lone Shieling Trail, which was a short hike through a protected old wood forest.
But first we had to get there. Yikes! Between the hairpin turns and the 8% grades, I was terrified. Greg told me that this was the route we would take with the trailer in the morning. I may have had a teeny weenie meltdown at that point.
It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, but I did not particularly relish the idea of dragging 8,000 lb of trailer with us the next day. (Luckily for me, Greg told me later that day that he had looked at a terrain version of the map, which showed quite a few sharp ups and downs that we would have to drive. That revelation was enough to convince him to take a different route to our next destination. About an hour longer, but far less nerve-wracking. Yay!)
The hike through the old wood forest was lovely, but buggy.
After the hike, I told Greg that he owed me some ice cream for putting my nerves through that driving experience.
We tried eating our ice cream outside, but the bugs were relentless. On the drive back to the campground, we were smashing gnats and mosquitoes against the windshield and windows the entire way.
First, this is a photo taken from our campground. We are perched on top of a cliff.
We are currently at the northern end of Cape Breton. I feel as if the clouds tend to sit on top of the mountains here, which makes things very foggy and misty.
This was the scene during part of our drive this morning. It was even worse yesterday when we were pulling the camper. Greg’s nerves were completely shot by the time we arrived at the campground.
Since the weather forecast was for rain in the afternoon, we got going early in the morning to take advantage of the drier conditions. It was still dreary, but at least it wasn’t wet.
Greg had picked out some trails for us to hike along the Cabot Trail. But first we took a detour down the coastal road, driving through tiny Neil’s Harbour and stopping to take a photo of the lighthouse.
The lighthouse was unattractive, so I’m not posting a picture of it.
We stopped at this pretty little pond (below) in order to use the porta potties.
Then we stopped at Jack Pine to hike the trails.
I love the way the Canadian parks situate these chairs at scenic overlooks
Some photos of the hike.
If you look closely, you can see a couple sitting on the rocks.
Then we stopped at the beach to take a picture.
Next we stopped at Green Cove, where we got to see some seals hanging out by the rocks. I’m not going to post a picture of the seals because all you would see is a black dot on the water. But here are some photos of the cove itself.
Those small rocks in the water off to the right are where the seals were hanging out.
At this point we headed back to the camper for a late lunch and a rest.
Our next stop was Baddeck (emphasis on the second syllable), Cape Breton. After setting up the camper in a nice, out of the way and shady site, we headed to the visitor center to see what there was to do in Baddeck.
The visitor’s center
Afterward, we drove down to the harbor, struggled to find a parking spot, finally succeeded, and walked along the very pretty boardwalk.
There were a couple of these metal sculptures scattered throughout the wharf area. I thought they were charming.
Greg was interested in getting a drink at the restaurant on the wharf. I talked him into having an appetizer to go with it. Our choice was lobster bruschetta, and it was delicious! I have also discovered my favorite cocktail, which is an aperol spritzer.
I immediately dug in, and only then thought to take a photo.
Cabot Trail
The next morning, we attempted to drive the Cabot Trail, which is a very famous scenic drive in Cape Breton. The weather was cloudy when we woke up, but as we got into the higher elevations, a fine mist made visibility difficult.
Greg decided it might be best to turn around and try the trail another day. But first, we stopped at a local chocolate shop to ask for information and, of course, to buy some chocolate.
I only thought to take the picture after we had already consumed some of the chocolate.
The ferry
Greg decided to take the ferry to get back to Baddeck. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a ferry this small.
It took all of 5 minutes to get across the water on the ferry.
The Alexander Graham Bell Museum
Since the weather was still lousy, we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum for a visit. Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell made his home in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, for many years?
Holy cow, Alexander Graham Bell was a busy guy! His early career involved teaching speech to deaf students. One of his students later became his wife, Mabel. He also taught Helen Keller and started a school for the deaf.
Teaching the deaf was not his only passion, however. As we know, he invented the telephone. He was also interested in the study of longevity, breeding sheep so that they always gave birth to twins, inventing a very fast boat using hydrofoils, experimenting with tetrahedrons, and making airplanes. In fact, he and his team won the American Scientific award for the first powered flight to travel 1 km.
Despite the iffy weather, I think we made the most of our day.
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 